Tuning In: NESN kicks into high gear after games

Friday

Jun 21, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Bill Doyle Tuning In

As soon as Brent Seabrook slapped a 55-foot shot past Tuukka Rask at 9:51 of overtime Wednesday night to give Chicago a 6-5 victory over the Bruins to even the Stanley Cup Finals at 2-2, NESN’s whirlwind postgame coverage kicked into high gear.

NESN jumped from Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley discussing the game outside the Bruins locker room to an interview with Zdeno Chara inside the Bruins locker room to an interview with Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford in the Chicago locker room to a press conference with Chicago coach Joel Quenneville to analysis from Brickley, Dale Arnold and Barry Pederson in NESN’s studio on the fifth floor of the Garden to an interview with Dennis Seidenberg in the Bruins locker room to a press conference with Bruins coach Claude Julien.

And that was just in the first half hour or so of NESN’s 90-minute postgame show that ended about 1 a.m.

“Jack and I have joked about it,” said Arnold, NESN’s Bruins studio host. “It’s like working without a net because we’re trying to jam so much stuff in. It’s an interesting new way of doing things that NESN has not done before.”

NESN televised the Bruins games during the regular season and first round of the playoffs, but has been limited to providing pregame and postgame coverage over the last three rounds because NBC and its sister networks own exclusive rights to the games.

Two assistant producers kept track of the various video feeds Wednesday and alerted producer Sean Allen when each interview and press conference was about to begin. Allen informed Arnold or Edwards when he wanted to switch to another live interview.

“We just literally do a one-liner,” Arnold said, “on the air, saying, ‘Let’s go to the podium now for Joel Quenneville,’ and, poof, it pops up. … We’re just traffic cops for lack of a better term.”

After the postgame interviews end, Arnold guides Pederson, Gordie Kluzak and Billy Jaffe, whoever is joining him that night, through their analysis.

During the Stanley Cup Finals, NESN airs 90 minutes of pregame coverage and 90 minutes to two hours of postgame coverage. After Chicago beat the Bruins in triple overtime in Game 1, NESN’s postgame show ran until 2 a.m. and Arnold didn’t get home to Bellingham until 3:15. If the Bruins win the Cup, NESN could be in for an even longer night.

“My guess is we’ll be on until there’s nothing left to say,” Arnold said.

That’s fine with Arnold.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store,” he said, “all day long on game day.”

NESN can go live from the third or ninth floors of the Garden any time before or after the games, but must vacate its fifth-floor studio by 7:40 p.m. and can’t return until NBC ends its postgame coverage.

NBC and CSNNE also have pregame and postgame shows, but NBC’s is much shorter. As the regular-season rights holder of the Bruins, NESN can show more highlights than CSNNE.

NBC will televise Game 5 in Chicago at 8 Saturday night so NESN will begin its pregame coverage at 6:30 p.m. Because Fox will carry the Red Sox on Saturday, all Bruins pregame and postgame coverage will appear on NESN, not NESNPlus.

The 11 goals in Game 4 nearly matched the 12 scored in the first three games of the series. During NESN’s postgame show Wednesday, Arnold said he would have bet his mortgage that 11 goals would not be scored in a game in the series.

“I couldn’t even envision it,” Arnold said. “It just seemed to be that runaway train that kept getting away from them. The way Tuukka has played, the way they play defense, you think if you’re going to score five goals, you’re going to win every single game. My guess is you won’t see another one like that again.”

The Bruins beat Crawford to his glove side for all five of their goals Wednesday and most of their goals in the finals. During NESN’s postgame show, Crawford said he couldn’t let that affect him, but Arnold can’t see how it won’t.

“I’m sure it bothers him,” Arnold said. “I’m sure he thinks about it. I’m sure he’d like to be better than he has been so far. To me, it’s been a real weakness.”

Even though the Bruins lost, the high number of goals made Game 4 fun to watch.

“It was a blast,” Arnold said.

With 6.459 million viewers on NBC, Game 4 was the most watched Game 4 since people meters were introduced in 1987. The first four games have averaged 5.356 million viewers, the most since Nielsen began keeping track in 1994.

Game 4 also attracted a whopping 28.9 rating in Boston and a 22 rating in Chicago.

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15